Mourinho: Chelsea fans are soft

Jose Mourinho may call himself the ‘Special One’ but Chelsea fans might think otherwise after their former boss branded Stamford Bridge supporters as ‘soft’ and the ‘suit-and-tie’ brigade.

Mourinho left Chelsea last month after a power struggle with owner Roman Abramovich. However, he was still massive favourite with the Blues fans after delivering two league titles during his time in charge.

But, in a new book, Mourinho has spoken about about the fan culture in London – and is sure to upset the Stamford Bridge faithful.

‘Most of the black community are fans of Arsenal, the Jewish community support Tottenham, in the most diadvantaged area of London they’re fans of West Ham, and Fulham are a small club but with a strong nucleus of clubs,’ said Mourinho.

‘And then comes Chelsea, a cosmopolitan club with fans famous around the world, like Bryan Adams, Claudia Schiffer and Chelsea, the daughter of former president Clinton.

‘And there’s a common denominator among them all – they’re foreigners which fits in with the general profile of the fan of the club.

‘Whoever is a foreigner and leads a life above the means of the average citizen is a fan of Chelsea because Chelsa have the most expensive tickets, the most expensive meals, their social life around the games is more important than that of other clubs.

‘Because they have that spending power, the Chelsea fan is more ‘society’ and, of course, thats reflected in the stadium with the support they give the team.

‘It’s the soft sort of fan who doesn’t get behind the team a lot, who don’t organise themselves into fan groups, with the cheering on that is charachteristic of the image of English football.

‘They create a different atmosphere because a lot of our fans also go to the opera, the theatre, other types of shows that don’t lend themselves to shouting. That’sthe Chelsea fan. That’s why Chelsea have some difficulty in asserting themselves as a great club of English football.

Mourinho made his comments before he left Chelsea to a journalist and the quotes will feature in new book ‘Jose Mourinho – Natural Winner’.

He continued: ‘The club has a fan profile which distinguishes it. He’s the London fan who comes from a middle-upper social area, a privileged class from a chic district of London.

‘He’s the suit-and-tie-fans, with economic power, almost the antithesis of the fan in England of low social status, the fan who has difficulty with coping with ticket prices, the fan who has a long support of history for the club. So we’re not talking about West Ham or Arsenal.’